There were 490 female students at Timken High School in 2005, and 65 were pregnant, WEWS-TV in Cleveland reported.

The new Canton school board program promotes abstinence but also will teach students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly, bringing the city school district’s health curriculum in line with national standards.

…

The Ohio Department of Education doesn’t require schools to provide sex education, particularly when it comes to using contraceptives. The state curriculum calls for venereal disease education, which often is taught along with nutrition and the effects of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

One does wonder what kind of venereal disease education can be done without discussing contraceptives.

I’m not taking chances with the schools. Our kids already know what a condom is at 11 and 12, and I plan to get a plan B perscription, tell them what it does and where I keep it, and make it clear that if it ever disappears, no questions.

Jeff: In Philly, kids are shocked that a stop sign means that you have to actually stop your car, rather than slowing down (slightly) for the intersection.

In sex ed classes, there are girls who are shocked that douching with Coke isn’t a good way to prevent pregnancy, or that you can get pregnant your first time, or that any other number of “you can’t if …” (you’re standing up, you’re on top, you have sex in a jucuzzi, etc) turn out to be untrue.

bmc90 — Ultimately, this is none of my business, but I have to ask, would you really not engage your kid if she swiped the Plan B? I mean, maybe she needs your support and/or guidance–like help scheduling a dr’s appointment, or a trip to a rape counselor?

The kids are boys, ponygirl, so HOPEFULLY no trip to the rape counselor. Big lecture about how Plan B is not Plan A, you can’t coerce someone to take it, and I won’t be renewing the perscription if it disappears because there is not good excuse for making the same mistake more than once (or really even once). They should be swiping CONDOMS, not Plan B. I hope they would come to us for help, but I’m not going to let that false hope produce an unplanned pregnancy. I managed to be on the pill at 16 without my parents knowing, so why should I expect that I will find out what they are up to? I just don’t want them paying child support beginning at 17.

Mighty Ponygirl – a University professor in my city actually wrote a bunch of newspaper articles saying that “stop signs mean nothing. It’s just a suggestion!” and that no one should obey them.

So yeah, I’m really not surprised when teenagers are honest-to-gosh shocked that ridiculous urban legends aren’t true. It’s all third-and-fourth-hand, word of mouth friend-of-a-friend anecdotes. To a kid who isn’t even allowed to say the words penis or vagina at home because their parents think it’s filthy, they’re going to latch on to any semi-plausible [in their mind] idea and tout it as God’s Truth.

Because clearly, if your best friend had unprotected sex, shoved an ice cube up her vagina afterwards and managed to not become pregant, this is PROOF that ice cubes kill sperm. And in any given high school, I’m willing to bet that within a week it will be a Scienfitic Fact that ice cubes prevent pregnancy.

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